


Not Part of the Plan

by thundercaya



Series: The Workplace Warzone [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety Attacks, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 19:10:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8765491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thundercaya/pseuds/thundercaya
Summary: Madison has a shocking revelation over lunch.





	

Despite the fact that Madison hadn’t exactly been social that night when he’d had dinner with the Hamiltons, the head of the household still seemed to want to hang out with him. Hamilton didn’t bring up the idea of Madison coming back to his house right away, but he did text Madison often to ask if he wanted to go to lunch. Madison mostly declined, but occasionally he took up the offer because he knew he had to get out of the office once in awhile. They mostly talked about Hamilton’s political blog--which he wanted Madison to contribute to--but there were also long periods of awkward silence when Madison just couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

It was during one of those silences that Hamilton’s phone buzzed where it sat on the table. Others might think it rude that Hamilton picked it up to check the message, but as Madison had been checking Twitter for the past five minutes, he had no room to talk.

Looking at his screen, Hamilton let out a chuckle. He put a hand over his mouth, but continued to laugh through his fingers.

“What is it?” Madison asked.

Hamilton cleared his throat. “Nothing, just--Eliza sent me this.” He turned his phone screen towards Madison to show him a photo of a hot dog that looked like it had been stepped on with a caption reading “rest in peace, pupper” and sad face.

Madison furrowed his brow, unsure for a moment if this was a problem with Hamilton’s sense of humor or if he was just too stupid to get the joke. “I don’t get it.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of an inside joke,” Hamilton said, which was relief. He turned the phone screen back towards himself and smiled at it fondly. “Though to be fair, she could probably send me a picture of a piece of dog shit she found on the ground and I’d just be happy she thought of me.”

Madison’s brain suddenly shot back to that morning, when he’d woken up to find a text from Jefferson. It was a picture of a large wheel of cheese with a caption that said “the moon looks beautiful tonight.” If anyone else had sent him that, he would have told them to stop sending him ridiculous shit, but coming from Jefferson it had allowed him to start the day with a good laugh.

Oh no. No no no. It didn’t mean anything, couldn’t. Madison’s breathing quickened, and he knew he had a limited time to stop it from snowballing out of control, but he didn’t have space to think about that. Hamilton loved his wife dearly. That was obvious, even with the casual flirting he did now and then, most likely unconsciously. If love was what took a random picture with an absurd caption from annoying to charming, then Madison had a serious problem. Love was not a part of his plan when he’d first reached out to Jefferson. Make a friend. Gain a political ally. That was it. He couldn’t be in love.

He frantically clawed at his mind for an alternate explanation. Surely friends had inside jokes too. He’d certainly had some with his roommate in college. He couldn’t stay on that train of thought though, because thinking about dead people certainly wasn’t going to calm him down. Especially considering he hadn’t properly processed his feelings before his friend’s death and certainly couldn’t allow himself to do so after. And even if friends did have inside jokes, they probably didn’t stay up nights wondering what new jokes they’d wake up to the next morning, or worrying that their friend would forget about them for one single day and they’d wake up to nothing. They didn’t light up at every selfie they received or agonize over perfecting their own selfies. And Madison did those things. He had done all those things.

“James,” Hamilton said, putting a hand on Madison’s shoulder. Madison hadn’t even noticed that Hamilton had gotten up. “Hey, James, easy. Easy, man. Slow down.”

Madison sucked in a slow, deep breath, followed by a couple more as Hamilton talked him through them. He became aware that other patrons in the diner were staring at them. His breathing almost picked up again at that, but he forced himself to maintain his rhythm.

“Are you okay?” Hamilton asked once Madison had himself a bit more under control.

“Fine,” Madison forced out. 

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” Madison averted his gaze. “I just... remembered something stupid I said in high school.”

“Oh,” Hamilton said. “That’s, uh….” He cleared his throat. “Should I call for the check?”

“Yeah,” Madison said. “That’s probably best.”

And it was also probably best if Madison didn’t give this any more thought until he was safely home by himself.


End file.
